“So? Guys love porn,” she dismissed. “Making porn is like a whole thing for them. It’s fun.”
“You’ve done it?”
“Kinda. On Snapchat once,” she admitted. “You couldn’t see my face. I think it ended up on Porn hub. The headline was like Tinder Date has sex on the first date. That wasn’t true, though.”
“Porn hub isn’t known for their accuracy,” I pointed out.
“True.”
“What am I going to do, Bella?”
“Why don’t you talk to him? Get his side of the story?”
“He’s a jerk! A handsome, loveable jerk, I don’t know,” I said, crying into the phone. “I’m so confused. I don’t know what to think.”
“What does your heart say?”
“Sandra! Sandy! Hey! You have a visitor!” called my cousin from the living room.
“Bella, let me go. Something’s happening.”
I went outside the bedroom. Through the window into the downstairs, I could see Jack walking up the driveway from his car.
“Jack’s here,” Jake announced. “Go talk to him.”
“What? You invited him here?”
“Not exactly. He called, and I was supposed to smooth things over for him, but I decided it would be better to wait until he got here to tell you. That way, you couldn’t say no.”
“No!”
“Oh, c’mon. The guy’s crazy about you,” Jake said. “Just hear him out. I can’t have you living on my couch for the rest of your life.”
“I’m in a guest bedroom.”
“Figure of speech,” he dismissed. “And if you argue, do it outside. I’m watching Tiger King. Have you seen that?”
“Yeah, it’s okay.”
“Okay? It’s amazing, I think. Huh.”
Cousin Jake returned to his TV, and I went outside to confront Jack.
“Jack, what are you doing here?” I demanded the moment I got outside.
“Sandra, I’ve been so worried.”
“Cut the crap. You know why I’m here.”
“I’m sorry about Kitty. But she’s in my past. I sent her away and told her to never come back into my life,” he promised.
“Did you use me? Just to help the merger along?”
“What? No!” he said immediately. “I fell in love with you.”
“I want to believe that, I really do,” I said dramatically. “But I don’t know what to believe.”
“Look, there’s something I didn’t tell you. Ten years ago, I had a fiancé. She was killed in a car accident. It left me pretty broken at the time,” he confessed.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“I turned to the BDSM lifestyle as a means of coping,” he explained. “It was the only way I could feel like I was in control again. Without it, I was just lost. That’s why I got so upset when you pushed me to kiss you.”
“So, all the bondage stuff, the rope—”
“I guess it was a way for me to forget my trouble past,” he admitted. “I could, of course, keep my submissives at arm’s length, so they never got too close. But you were different. You got too close from the moment I saw you. You were in my heart.”
“Oh, Jack,” I said, touched by his words. “I’ve been miserable without you. I really have. But I feel like we’ve destroyed the trust.”
“No, we haven’t. I never lied to you, never,” he vowed. “I didn’t tape you and those old tapes? They meant nothing. I’ve destroyed them all. The playroom is empty now. All the toys are gone.”
“All of them?”
“Well, the vibrator was yours,” he recalled. “I think I put that in the nightstand of the bedroom.”
“Maybe I won’t be needing it,” I smiled, moving closer to him. “But if we’re going to do this again, we have to do it right. We have to actually date.”
“We’ve been dating. My God, the amount of time we spent together. Those days count as like five dates at least,” he concluded. “We’ve gotten to know each other very well.”
“That’s true,” I agreed.
“Will you come back to the house? Please? It’s where you belong,” he offered.
Jack pulled out a ring box, but I pushed it down.
“Too soon,” I said. “But I’ll move back in with you, and we can try. But we have to take it slow.”
“Yes, I promise. And no more playroom.”
“I don’t mind the toys. It was the room, I think.”
Chapter Twenty-Two – Jack
After three months of Sandra back in my life, we had become a real couple. The lifestyle hadn’t totally left us, but we explored it in a more healthy way now.
I had Sandra tied to the bed. She had nipple clamps on, and her favorite vibrator was inside her. I sat at the edge of the bed playing with the controls on my phone. It was a scenario we had repeated on and off over the last few weeks. Tonight, I was going to add a twist.
“Whew, my God,” she panted. “That was a lot of fun, but I don’t think I can take another orgasm, sir. I’m ready to get up.”
I pulled out the ring box.
“Is that the ring? Jack, I don’t know…”